Chapter 50: "Splinters"
The days bled into each other. Mornings and nights didn't feel different anymore — just the same ache stretched over hours. Zariah stopped checking the clock. What did it matter?
Jasmine still came every day. She sat. She watched. She waited. But Zariah barely spoke. Sometimes, she turned her face away and didn't even acknowledge her.
On the fifth day in the hospital, Jasmine snapped.
"You can't keep shutting me out like this," she said, louder than she meant to.
Zariah flinched but didn't reply.
"I'm trying so hard, Z," Jasmine said, her voice cracking. "You almost died, and I'm still here. I didn't run. So why are you acting like I don't exist?"
Zariah stared at her bandaged wrists. "Because it hurts to exist."
The room fell silent. Jasmine didn't know what to say to that. Maybe there was nothing to say.
Zariah finally looked up, her eyes dull. "You don't get it, Jas. You can't get it. You don't live in my head."
"I don't have to live in your head to see you're drowning," Jasmine said. "And I've been reaching out to pull you up for weeks, but you won't even take my hand."
"I don't want to be saved," Zariah whispered. "Not anymore."
Jasmine stepped back like she'd been slapped. She picked up her bag with shaking hands. "Then what do you want from me?"
Zariah opened her mouth but couldn't answer.
Jasmine's voice was barely holding together now. "If you don't want help, say it. If you want me to go, say it. But stop pretending like I don't matter."
Zariah didn't respond. She just stared at the window again.
The silence dragged on. Jasmine finally turned toward the door.
Before leaving, she said one last thing: "I love you. Even if you don't want to hear it."
Then she walked out, and the door clicked shut behind her.
Zariah's heart pounded — not out of panic, but out of emptiness. The one person who had stayed… was slipping away.
And for the first time since the hospital, Zariah felt something besides numbness.
Regret.
But she didn't know how to fix anything.
Not yet.